Bright Box router - firewall features

The Bright Box router's firewall is enabled to protect against external intrusion. However it does allow all outgoing traffic from devices connected to your router.

This article explains the key features of the Bright Box router's firewall.

View firewall settings

From a computer connected to your Bright Box, go to 192.168.1.1 (opens in a new tab or window)

The router's LOGIN SCREEN will open

Enter the username and password for the admin pages

The username is admin (all lower case)

The password can be found on a sticker on your router

Click LOGIN

The STATUS page will open

Select ADVANCED

You'll be prompted to proceed with caution - select ACCEPT

Select Firewall in the menu on the left

From here, you can check and change the settings for your firewall

Enable or disable the firewall

By default, the firewall on the router is enabled. If you want to disable the firewall as a test (for example to see if the problem with an internet application is caused by the router's firewall) follow the steps below:

Open the Bright Box router's admin pages and navigate to the Firewall menu - you'll find help with this in the section above

Select Disable in Firewall Features

Click SAVE SETTINGS

Settings will be applied

To enable the firewall at the end of your test, simply reverse the instructions, selecting the Enable option.

Port Forward and Port Triggers

If you're interested in setting up port forwarding or port triggering you'll find more help in one of the articles below:

Access control on the Bright Box router helps you to control what your internet connection is used for by people connected to your home network. Rules can be put in place for every computer and device connected to your home network, or for a specific computer.

Before setting up Access Control, reserve an IP address for your computer (or device). You can do this from the DHCP option in Advanced Set-up. You'll find more help in the article reserving an IP address.

Open the Bright Box router's admin pages and navigate to the Firewall menu - you'll find help with this in the section above

Select Access Control

Select Add Device Filtering Rule

Enter a Rule Description - in the example below our rule is called Block websites

In the Client Device IP Address field, enter the IP address of the computer or device you wish to block from viewing web pages. In the example below, IP address 192.168.1.17 has been used

In the list of services, select WWW to block web pages

Scroll to the bottom of the page

In the Scheduling Rule menu, select Always Blocking

Click SAVE SETTINGS to apply the rule

Settings will be applied

Select to Enable the Filtering function and select SAVE SETTINGS

The new access control rule will be saved

You can select to Edit, or Delete your rule at any time, for example if you wish to restore access, or add more users to the list

Set up URL Blocking

URL blocking on the Bright Box router allows you to restrict certain websites from being accessed by either all computers, or specific computers or devices on your home network.

The example below shows how you would block a particular computer from viewing a particular website, for example www.example.com.

Open the Bright Box router's admin pages and navigate to the Firewall menu - you'll find help with this in the section above

Select Schedule Rule

From the schedule rule page, select Add Schedule Rule

Enter a name and comment for the rule - in the example below we've called our rule BLOCK9-midnight

In the Active Time Period field, enter a time for the rule - in the example below we want the rule to be active every day between the hours of 21:00 and 23:59

Click SAVE SETTINGS

The scheduled rule will be saved

Your rule will be displayed

Next, select Access Control and select Add Device Filtering Rule

Give your rule a name - in the example below our rule is called BLOCK9-midnight

Enter the IP address of the device you want to block the internet for between nine and midnight

Scroll to the bottom of the page

Check TCP and UDP

In the Scheduling Rule menu select the name you gave to your rule - in the example below this is BLOCK9-midnight

Click SAVE SETTINGS

The access control rule will be saved

Select to Enable the Filtering function and select SAVE SETTINGS

The new access control rule will be saved

Manage Intrusion Detection

If you want to disable a specific feature of the Bright Box router's firewall as a test (for example to see if the problem with an internet application is caused by the router's firewall) follow the steps below:

Open the Bright Box router's admin pages and navigate to the Firewall menu - you'll find help with this above

Select Intrusion Detection

From here you can select to disable the firewall or

You can select to disable any of the specific firewall features below:

TCP Connection

UDP Session

FTP Service

H.323 Service

TFTP Service

SIP Service

RTSP Service

L2TP Service

PPTP Service

IPSec Service

By default all ping attempts to your WAN are discarded, however you can also select to disable this

If you make any changes, select SAVE SETTINGS

The changes you've made to your firewall will be saved

Note: this should only be completed as a test - we recommend changing settings back after completing your test.

Set up MAC Filtering

As an added security feature, you may like to enable the MAC filter on your Bright Box router. This means that only computers or devices with a MAC address that you approve can use your internet connection.

To do this, follow the steps below:

Open the Bright Box router's admin pages and navigate to the Firewall menu - you'll find help with this above

Select MAC Filter

Select to EnableMAC Address Control

Enter the MAC address(s) of the computer(s) or device(s) you wish to allow access to

The easiest way to do this is to scroll to the bottom of the MAC filter page, locate your device in the DHCP client list, and select Copy To - this will automatically insert your MAC address into the chosen field

Alternatively, you can type the MAC address of the computer or device that you wish to allow access into the MAC address field

Note: If you experience problems connecting to your router after changing settings, you may need to reset your router to factory default settings.

Add a computer to the DMZ

If you think your Bright Box router is stopping a particular application (e.g. an online game or video conferencing) from working correctly, you can temporarily add the computer or device into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) as a test. While this is safer than completely disabling your firewall, we suggest that you don't leave your computer unprotected in the DMZ.

Before adding your computer to the DMZ, you'll need to reserve an IP address for your computer (or device). You can do this from the DHCP option in Advanced Set-up. You'll find more help in the article reserving an IP address.

To add the computer to the DMZ:

From your Bright Box router's admin pages navigate to the Firewall menu - you'll find help with this above

Select DMZ and select to Enable DMZ

Enter the IP address for the computer that you wish to add to the DMZ - in the example below we reserved the IP address 192.168.1.17